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Faculty of Science
UNB Fredericton

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Earth Sciences

Experiential education

We offer field schools and field training throughout our 4-year degree programs.

Field schools

This one-week session happens in the first week of May or before classes begin in the fall and covers:

  • introduction to field observations
  • traversing

  • sampling and mapping


This two-week session is offered at the end of the winter term, after exams, and is carried out in Fredericton and surrounding areas (Saint Andrews, NB, Joggins, NS and Sackville, NB). The field school provides:
  • supervised training in fieldwork
  • principles of stratigraphy and geological mapping

  • preparation of stratigraphic sections, geological map and cross-sections

Prerequisites: ESCI 2131, ESCI 2211, ESCI 2321


This two-week session is offered in late August and early September in the north shore area of New Brunswick, between Petit-Rocher and Bathurst and is to be taken as part of the final year.

It provides:

  • principles of structural geology and geological mapping
  • supervised training in fieldwork
  • preparation of an independent structural map

  • report of a selected area

Prerequisites: ESCI 2703, ESCI 3322 and either ESCI 3131 or permission of instructor


Apply geological, geochemical, geophysical and hydrological methods to an environmental site investigation. This class typically includes a week of fieldwork. This is followed by a week of:
  • analysis of data
  • preparation of a comprehensive written report
  • summarizing the field investigation
  • synthesizing results
  • drawing conclusions

  • making recommendation

A cost will be associated with this course. 

Prerequisites: ESCI 2703, ESCI 3442, ESCI 3631 


Endowed field trips

Dr. Ernie Hale was a highly respected professor in our department (mining engineer), who started the Geological Engineering program in the early 1980's.

This trip is for UNB senior undergraduate Earth Sciences and Geological Engineering students and happens every other year.

The 2018 trip to Greece was attended by ten students and two professors, who worked their way by vans from Thessaloniki to Athens.

The 2023 spring trip was to southern Italy, via vehicles south from Rome, to Vesuvius in Naples (& Pompei), the huge active Etna volcano on Sicily, to Volcano Island with fumeroles and active Stomboli volcano in the Aeolian Islands with 12 students and professors.


Dr. Arnie McAllister was a highly respected professor in our department, who taught Economic Geology.

This trip is focused on mineral resources and the related environments, and is for UNB senior undergraduate Earth Sciences and Geological Engineering students, as well as graduate students interested in this field; it happens every other year typically.

In the spring of 2019 trip visited mineral deposits throughout Spain and Portugal, including several world heritage sites with 12 students and two professors.

In the summer of 2022 we visited carbonatites and peralkaline igneous rocks around Montreal, mineral deposits around Thetford Mines and around the city of Quebec.

In the late spring of 2023, the trip included six students and a professor and travelled around the Island of Newfoundland, visiting several notable geological World Heritage sites and various types on mineral deposits that are characteristic of the northern Appalachian Mountains.